Picture Perfect
by Spirit-Animal-Jade
Summary: 'Jade never really imagined herself as the settling down kind of girl. Hollywood was her home, she always imagined her future to be full of business trips and excitement, new experiences, new dreams to follow every month. Settling down was for people in their forties. For people with steady jobs and boring lives.'


AN: It's snowing here, and save the bade was making me emotional so here, have this.

She sweeps the stupid net curtains that she still hasn't got around to ripping down yet aside, and glances despairingly at the scene building up progressively outside her front porch. She sighs with irritation before yanking them shut again. Can she pretend it isn't happening?

This was one of the main reasons she never ever wanted to move. LA was safe, LA was warm, in LA you were always within 5 minutes of a freaking store. And yet, here she was, in Canada, on the outskirts of Vancouver having to face the very probable likelihood of being snowed in for god knows how long. It was actually surprising how much snow could fall in such a short amount of time, because the last time she'd gathered the courage to look, the snow was only a couple of inches off the ground. Now it was piling up to a couple of feet and she'd be lucky if she got the door open. Fantastic. If there's one thing you need to know about Jade West, it's that she doesn't like the cold. Or maybe that she has possibly the best collection of horror movies ever, that's only expanded over the years. But, whatever. She doesn't appreciate snow and right now, the hole house is being drowned in it. She grits her teeth.

The one thing that keeps her from screaming, however, is the knowledge that if she were in LA still, he wouldn't be. And being separated by thousand of miles from her boyfriend is not something Jade appreciates either. Besides, she can write her script for her new play here, can't she? Or that's what he'd said. It had taken a while, months actually, to even get her to consider the idea of leaving Hollywood. But Beck's grandparents had got sicker, Beck had got more worried, and her resolve had got weaker. She couldn't stand in his way anymore. So they'd packed up their stuff from the small crampt flat they'd been renting and flown to the country she's spent so many years despising.

Beck had found a job as a editor for a local paper, he started three days ago, and she stayed behind, in his old family home that he'd spent so much of his childhood exploring, and worked on her latest script. And for now, that was enough.

They visited his grandparents in hospital in the evening. They were fading fast, but not unsurprisingly considering their age. Each time they went, the old couple would spend the majority of the visit congratulating Beck on finding such a nice young girl to settle down with, just like the first time she met them. She would smile in response and take one of their wrinkled hands in her own, and try to silently comfort Beck with touches and looks, in the best way she knew how. He was in pain, she knew.

Was that what they were doing? Settling down?

She finds a blanket hidden in the back of a cupboard and shakes it free of dust before sighing and sitting down at the kitchen table, keeping the blanket wrapped around her shoulders carefully. Okay, so she hasn't quite figured out the heating yet, or if this ancient old place even has any, and she'd much rather be in bed, curled up, but she isn't going to move. She can see the front door from here. She's listening for his car and the crunch of his footsteps up the drive.

She glanes at the falling snow again and then pointedly looks away. She guesses it could be pretty if it weren't so cold and inconvenient. She adjusts her blanket again and her mind wanders back to the hospital and Beck's grandmother. They won't be visiting this evening, not at this rate. Beck will spend the rest of the night worrying. She'll have to calm him down. _Settling down_. Just because they moved, as a couple, to a new house, together, doesn't mean they're settling down does it? Jade never really imagined herself as the settling down kind of girl. Hollywood was her home, she always imagined her future to be full of business trips and excitement, new experiences, new dreams to follow every month. Settling down was for people in their forties. For people with steady jobs and boring lives. For people who were married.

She glances swiftly at her bare left hand.

She's only twenty-three for christ's sake. She's practically still a child, much as she hates to admit it sometimes. She's none of the things that people who _settled down_ were. But whatever the criteria, she realises she's always been sure of one thing in her future, known since she was fifteen and stood outside his rv in the drizzling rain, just like out of one of Cat's stupid chick flicks, kissing him and whispering that she's never letting go. Known that somehow, her future would compromise mostly of one person, since she couldn't imagine it any other way. _Beck_. They'd made a promise to each other, and it wasn't broken yet.

Her left hand is still feeling strangely empty.

Marriage was never something she found attractive at all. Who needs a piece of paper forcibly binding you to someone else? You shouldn't need that to stay together. A piece of paper that could be shredded in the blink of an eye anyway, as her parents showed her. It doesn't mean anything. It's not something she wants. It's something that meant fixing a pillow case to her head and running around her house when she was five. It's something she grew out of, right?

But she can't imagine her life without Beck. He's never spoken about it, probably because her knows her views on the subject. But there's no doubting he wants it. As a old romantic it's got to be on his list.

If he asked her now, would she say yes?

The snow is still drifting, and just as worry is pushing to the forefront of her mind, she hears a door slam, and then sure enough the sound of snow being trodden underfoot and banging as he cleared his boots before shoving the door open with some effort and stepping inside, his olive skin flushed and red, his lips tinged with blue. She stands up.

'Hey, babe.' He rubs his hands together for warmth, and there's snow caught in his still impossibly long hair. He's grinning at her widely and she pauses in crossing to put the coffee machine on.

'What is it?' she asks cautiously, and Beck looks midly hurt.

'It? How'd you know I've got somthing?'

'Because you're smiling at me weird. I known you for too long, Beck. And why were you late? I was getting worried.'

He shakes of the last of the snow from his body and comes up behind her at the counter, wrapping an arm around her stomach, and kissing her neck. She melts into his arms a little bit.

'Touche, Miss West. Sorry, babe, but you'll understand once I show you.'

She fills the cups with coffee awkwardly since he's still holding her and then swivels to face him, an eyebrow raised. He places an arm either side of her and grins again, looking like an excited little boy.

'Show me what?' she says lowly.

He places a kiss on her lips and then tugs at her hand, and drags to the front door. She tries to protest but he just shoves her blanket at her and guides them both outside. The first thing she notices is the bitter cold, and then the tobboggan that's leaning up on the side of the house, gathering a light dusting of snow. She shrinks back.

'No way, Beck Oliver. I am not getting on that thing.' she says firmly. And if he thinks otherwise, he's got another thing coming.

Beck groans. 'Oh c'mon, Jade. It's the one I used as a kid. It'll be fun, I promise. I got it out for us.'

'Then it's probably close to falling apart!'

'No, it's not. Sturdy as a brick. Gramps built it. You'll be fine.'

She whimpers a little and Beck laughs at her and pulls her to his side. 'After we've had some coffee, yeah?'

She can do nothing but nod, knowing that she needs to keep Beck happy right now, so she agrees and then jumps into the only slightly warmer kitchen again. Beck grabs their coffee and starts talking to her about his day, and it's not that she's not listening, but his earlier words are creating a picture in her head of little Beck Oliver with shaggy brown hair and big hazel eyes skidding down a hill while an older man watches and smiles from the top, and she looks at her boyfriend talking- watches the curve of his jaw and his crooked smile, and the image changes slightly. This time the kid has the same brown hair, but his eyes are the brightest blue, and he's screaming with delight as his father pushes him off down the hill on his sledge and there's two people at the top of the hill. A woman with long black hair and her husband, both grinning at their child, hands entwined as the snow falls down around them.

It's like something out of a picture postcard, really. And she finds she's not scared by this image she's created, not disgusted by it either.

And as she sips her coffee, she thinks that maybe _settling down _isn't so bad after all, and maybe she should take some advice from old Mrs Oliver. But Beck has his job and she has hers, and they're together, and it's snowing and that's enough for now.

AN: Did you like it? It's a oneshot for now, just warning you. Leave a review maybe?


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